So, a year or so isn't too long for an update right? This is my shameface.

He wasn't sure what he expected in class on Wednesday. Awkward looks? A vague undercurrent of excitement? Complete avoidance? All Edward knew when he sat down in his seat just one hour and ten minutes from his first official date with Riley - with a man - was that he needed the time to move just as it should. Not too slowly or too fast, but with the surety of a metronome, pointing out the seconds with finality as his pulse proved his vitality.

He arrived way too early; no one else was there. So he began to thumb through his Spanish notebook, preparing to at least attempt to study. As he looked through the pages of notes he had taken over the last few weeks, he panicked. There was no way he could reasonably expect Riley to think him anything other than a crazy, obsessive ass if he saw these pages. There was little Spanish to be seen.

He rummaged hastily through his bag, pulled out a rubber-banded stack of note cards, and glanced at his phone for the time. He had a bit more than ten minutes before class officially began. He started scrawling anything and everything from his notes that could be quickly copied to the cards. He winced slightly when he saw his uncharacteristically sloppy handwriting, but he couldn't care. He simply could not open this notebook in front of Riley today.

The action of reading and copying kept his mind occupied and his nerves at bay as the classroom started filling up. He had one purpose, and he let the rest just fade away.

He didn't feel a prickling awareness when Riley entered the classroom. His hand didn't stop mid-scrawl to look his way. Edward just kept right on scribbling notes, oblivious to the gentle, brown-eyed gaze locked on the movement of his fingers, wrist and forearm. Riley smiled at Edward's furious scrawling; after a few weeks of sitting behind him he'd gotten to know the movements well. He was oh so familiar with the arc of Edward's shoulders and the pivot of his elbow as his hand flew across the desk. The times when Edward was most oblivious, Riley had been able to angle himself just so so that he could watch Edward's long fingers wrap around that blue Papermate pen, gripping and releasing. He could easily recognize those fingers by the ink stains between the knuckles.

Ah, there it was. The cracking. Edward never wrote for long without bending his digits against one another, cracking the knuckles in a rote and predictable pattern. Riley shivered. He loved that sound. And he couldn't wait for what came next. Edward deftly swiped that ink stained hand through the front of his hair - once, twice and again - then gently swept just the tips of his fingers below his ear and into the hair at the back of neck- the softest hint of a scratch. Riley smirked at the habit leftover from boyhood, so fierce in the front and timid underneath, just like Edward.

"Hey, there," Riley greeted him. Edward's soft green eyes shot up to Riley's and settled on his mouth. He knew he should say something, but all he could choke out was a husky, "hey" in return.

"Don't get too much of head start on me. I thought the point was to study together."

"Oh, I'm not ..." Edward looked down at the couple dozen note cards sprawled along his desktop and started to gather them together. "I'm not studying really. Just getting organized. You wouldn't want to try to read my notes. They're a nightmare."

Darkest brown never left lighter green. "Hmmm. If you say so."

Senorita Veronica chose that moment to start class, and Riley swooped into the seat in front of Edward, effectively ending their conversation. Edward hoped his sigh of relief wasn't offensive, or even audible. It took the majority of the class for Edward to quit obsessing about every shift of Riley's body in his chair and notice Kate's absence, but when everyone started packing up to leave he asked Riley where she was.

Riley's eyes flitted to the side where Kate usually sat and said, "Oh, she's around. Didn't feel like getting up this morning I think. You ready to head out?"

"Definitely." A soft brown jacket, a messenger bag, an old Jansport, a pair of wayfarers and a navy toque and then they were side by side.

oooOOOooo

So often the moments in life that we fret over the most are the ones that underwhelm us with their uneventfulness, their ease. It's the events in between the mundane that can surprise us. The drive from the reception to the honeymoon suite. The summer between high school and college. The wait between the testing and the results. The walk from Spanish to the library.

Edward hadn't considered this moment. He'd been caught up worrying about class and what to do when they got to the library, but now he and Riley were literally walking together to their first date, and his entire mind and body was consumed with Riley's proximity. He could smell the faintest hint of coffee and cigarettes underneath Riley's ivory soap scent, and he badly wanted to brush arms and fingers together, feel his soft brown jacket. But he had no idea what was expected of him, what Riley expected or what anyone might have expected. He was entirely lost.

"Smoke?" Edward took the comment as an offer and shook his head in Riley's direction. "No, thanks. I don't."

"Do you mind if I do though? I didn't think to ask before."

"Not at all. I like when you smoke." Riley smirked around his unlit cigarette and blushed. And that was it. The rest of their walk to the library was silent except for the pucker and drag of Riley's smoking, which Edward quite frankly found to be beyond obscene. Again with his lips.

They settled onto two low upholstered benches by a wide window upstairs. It was a fairly secluded place, where they could quiz one another without disturbing the more studious pursuits around them. They faced each other, knees nearly brushing, eyes locked, and ... started studying. Edward's note cards were a helpful study aid, and within thirty minutes they'd quizzed one another on everything they were assigned to know for Friday's exam.

"I think we have it." The corners of Riley's mouth turned up in mirth as he stressed, "Finally."

Edward laughed. "Yeah, thank God I suggested we rigorously study this difficult material."

"I'm not complaining." Edward looked down at his hands, holding loosely to the cards as his elbows rested on his knees. Riley's hands were so close. Half an inch away really.

"Edward, I really am glad you asked me here. You know that, right?" His position mirrored Edward's. They were still sitting facing one another, their knees touching, feet planted a few feet apart, bodies bent ever so slightly towards one another, heads bowed, their hands hanging limply between their knees.

Edward was still gripping his notes when he answered, "Yeah, I mean thanks."

"Why did you?" Riley raised his head to watch Edward's reaction, but he couldn't see his eyes.

"I kind of couldn't help myself. I didn't think about it, really. I just wanted to see you again after the other day. I don't know. Why did you say yes?"

"I can't imagine ever saying no to you, Edward." At that, Edward looked sharply up, his face the picture of want as his nostrils barely flared and his lips upturned in a closed line. He liked that. And Riley knew it.

Riley's voice was gentle when he said, "I have to ask you something though. You haven't done this before, have you? Gone out with a guy."

"Why do you think that?"

"Just a feeling."

"Have you?"

"Dated a guy? Yes." It wasn't a surprising admission for Edward to hear, but he dropped his head anyway.

"Well, no. I haven't. That doesn't mean I don't want to or whatever. Or that I'm scared. It's just new." Edward couldn't stop fidgeting.

"I understand, Edward. I don't expect anything."

Edward smirked at his shoes. "I kind of do."

At that Riley grabbed the notes from Edward's hands, brushing his fingertips along Edward's palm, and let them fall to the ground. He made no other move to touch him, but left the tip of his middle finger pressed against the blue stained callous on Edward's. Edward's chest burst with anticipation. Why did the simplest contact with Riley affect him so deeply?

Edward hooked his finger around Riley's and looked directly into his eyes. "I don't know why or how or when, but I'm drawn to you. I'm ... attracted, in every sense, to you."

Edward heard a muted groan low in Riley's throat. "How did you ever think you don't know what to say?" Riley chuckled. "God, Edward, I'd do anything you wanted right now after that." Edward's cheeks burned hot from his cheekbones to his jaw, as his gaze dropped from Riley's dark brown eyes to his parted lips.

"Would you kiss me in the library?" he murmured. Riley pulled part of his full lower lip under his teeth, wetting it with the tip of his tongue. Then twisting his fingers enough to press them to Edward's, he gave the slightest tug and met Edward's mouth in the middle. Riley's lips were smooth and sweet, barely a hint of tobacco in their taste, and Edward was inebriated. His mouth felt so right as Riley opened it to him. For weeks Edward had been obsessing over that wide smile, those impossibly straight teeth, and those hungry lips. And now they were sliding together, pressed in the right places, wet and sweet and fucking perfect.

They continued to kiss softly as Edward slid his hand free and smoothed two fingertips up the center of Riley's soft, worn t-shirt to his throat. With two fingers lightly pressed on either side of Riley's Adam's apple, Edward thrilled to the feeling of the insistent thrumming of Riley's low hum. He knew exactly what Riley felt in that moment: pure pleasure, total contentment and grateful anticipation.

Riley pulled away slowly with one last lingering soft press of his lips to Edward's. He lazily opened his eyes and flashed a deliciously flushed and crooked smile.

"Your mouth. It's the fucking best."

This chapter inspired by Xavier Samuels' mouth and MeteorMuse reminding me of it. 3 Thanks for reading.